December 2, 2016
Inquiring minds want to know the proper etiquette for double weddings. Not just any double wedding – but a double wedding involving both the mother and the daughter.
Whom to ask?
Why, Emily Post of course.
And, like E. F. Hutton – when Emily Post spoke, people listened.
In this 1959 Q&A newspaper article, a widow and her daughter wanted to be married at the same time, in a double wedding, and she told Emily Post she “wondered about the propriety of such an arrangement.”
Emily Post wrote back: “It would be very unusual, but I see no possible impropriety in it.”
She went on to explain how best to handle the wedding:
“It seems to me that the best procedure would be for you, as mother of the bride, to sit as usual in the front pew. Your fiancé would be seated beside you. Then at the end of the marriage service of your daughter, instead of the recessional being played and your daughter and her husband walking out, they would step aside and you and your fiancé take your places where they have been standing and have the clergyman marry you. At the end of this, the recessional would be played and your daughter and her husband would walk out first with you and your husband following.”
And there you have it: the proper way to hold a double wedding, when you and your mother are getting married on the same day, according to Emily Post.
GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives can get you the answer to every question.
Now, let’s toast the happy couples.
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My daughter and I are having a double wedding in a few weeks. We have asked the celebrant to conduct the vows at the same time (mom and hubby – then daughter and hubby). Mum is walking down the aisle first “alone” and daughter will follow with her daughter, 18, behind as an attendant.
We both share the same friends, etc. We are the best of mates and the two gowns are identical with the exception of different-coloured overlays.
The organization has been a great experience and we are still mates (there has been no Bridezilla) and both are looking forward to our special day.
Wonderful.
Congratulations on this special, memorable day for all of you.
Tom & the entire GenealogyBank team …